Lost Zone Giratina VSTAR Deck List and Guide (2024)
Illus. 5ban Graphics
The Giratina VSTAR deck has been a strong contender in the Pokemon TCG standard meta for a while now, and it routinely shows up on our best decks in the Pokemon TCG.
Although considered one of the most difficult decks to pilot, Giratina VSTAR is highly effective against a wide spread of decks in the meta. In this guide, we’re going to get into the basics of the Giratina VSTAR deck strategy, including how it pairs with the Comfey/Lost Zone engine to maximize results.
*Updated Jun 22, 2024
Giratina VSTAR Deck List
-
Pokémon: 9
3 Giratina VSTAR CRZ-GG 69
4 Comfey CRZ-GG 14
1 Manaphy CRZ-GG 6
1 Sableye LOR 70 PH
3 Giratina V LOR 186
1 Cramorant LOR 50 PH
1 Iron Bundle PAR 56
1 Radiant Greninja ASR 46
1 Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex TWM 141
Trainer: 14
4 Switch SVI 194
2 Buddy-Buddy Poffin TEF 144
1 Counter Catcher PAR 160
1 Lost Vacuum CRZ 135
2 Boss's Orders PR-SW 251
3 Nest Ball SUM 158
2 Super Rod PAL 188
2 Iono PAF 80
3 Pokégear 3.0 SVI 186
1 Prime Catcher TEF 157
4 Mirage Gate LOR 163
1 Nest Ball SVI 181
1 Rescue Board TEF 159
4 Colress's Experiment LOR 205
Energy: 4
3 Basic {G} Energy SVE 1
4 Basic {P} Energy SVE 5
3 Basic {W} Energy Energy 11
3 Jet Energy PAL 190
Total Cards: 60
Giratina VSTAR Deck – Card Types
Lost Zone Giratina VSTAR – Deck Strategy Basics
As a brief recap, Giratina VSTAR is a massively powerful, dragon type Pokemon, meaning that on top of having incredible natural power, it also is immune from weakness. This makes dragon Pokemon like Giratina much harder to counter.
Giratina VSTAR
This powerful Dragon type Pokemon has zero weakness and takes knockouts in one hit!
And while Giratina VSTAR is powerful, it needs the Lost Zone Engine to work well. That’s because its attacks require a lot of energy, and different kinds of energy. Typically, getting multiple different types of basic energies onto your Pokemon is a daunting feat. But with the Lost Zone Engine, it’s pretty easy to do.
Here’s how the Lost Zone Engine works with Giratina VSTAR
The main strategy of this Giratina VSTAR deck list is to leverage the Lost Zone engine to a) draw cards and b) unlock powerful abilities. To do this, you need Comfey and Colress’s Experiment. Ideally, you would start the game with Comfey in the active position. To help facilitate this, this deck list runs four times as many Comfey cards than any other basic Pokemon (barring Giratina V). This makes it much more likely to be the basic Pokemon that you start out with.
Play Comfey
Use “Flower Selecting” to look at the top two cards of your deck.
Choose one card to go into your Lost Zone and one card to go into your hand.
Play Colress’s Experiment to look at the top five cards of your deck.
Choose three cards to go into your hand, two to go into your Lost Zone.
Take knockouts against lower HP Pokemon with Cramorant as early as turn one.
Once you have seven cards in your Lost Zone, you can play “Mirage Gate” to accelerate energies onto Giratina VSTAR.
Take OHKOs against most decks with Lost Impact, and use Star Requiem to take out really big Pokemon once you have 10 cards in your Lost Zone.
Clean up your opponent’s board with either Sableye or Radiant Greninja as needed.
Should You Go first or Second?
As this is an evolve deck, I would highly recommend going first. The only time you might want to consider going second (if you have the choice) is against single prize decks. This way, assuming you have Comfey in active and a Colress’s Experiment in hand, you can be the one to get the first prize thanks to Cramorant’s Spit Innocently – an attack with free cost as long as you have four cards in the Lost Zone.
What’s changed since the last update?
The last time we updated Giratina VSTAR was just after the 2024 rotation. Not a whole lot has changed since then, with the most notable alteration being Bloodmoon Ursaluna ex. This card replaces Iron Leaves ex as your primary secondary attacker given its versatility and effectiveness against most decks. It came out in the Twilight Masquerade expansion of Pokemon TCG, and is being used in other decks beyond Lost Zone as well.
Another card that came out in Twilight Masquerade that is seeing play in various Giratina VSTAR decks is the deadly Unfair Stamp card. This deck is running Prime Catcher instead, but Unfair Stamp makes up for Giratina VSTAR’s general reliance on Colress, enabling you the option to disrupt your opponent’s hand earlier on in the game.
Lastly, Iron Bundle is included in this deck list. Although not a new card, it can be helpful against the field of Pokemon seeing play that block abilities when they are in the active spot.
Giratina VSTAR Deck – Key Cards
Although rotation didn’t end up hurting Giratina VSTAR much, new cards in Temporal Forces certainly made it stronger. The strongest new addition that Giratina VSTAR gets access to is Prime Catcher. Before, some top tier Giratina VSTAR decks would run multiple copies of Cross Switcher to achieve what Prime Catcher does on its own. It also gets around the fact that Giratina VSTAR can’t afford to use a Boss’s Orders until several turns in as it needs to play Colress’s Experiment in order to hit its ideal Lost Zone numbers.
Prime Catcher in this deck is like the buff Giratina VSTAR got with counter catcher all over again except much stronger this time.
Prime Catcher
Buddy-Buddy Poffin
Other than Prime Catcher, the other card that’s helping Giratina VSTAR in Temporal Forces is Buddy-Buddy Poffin. Granting you the ability to put two Comfey’s onto your bench is a pretty big boost to Giratina VSTAR that not all decks will be able to take advantage of. While Battle VIP Pass may have given you more options, Buddy-Buddy Poffin has the advantage of not needing to be played on the very first turn.
Comfey
Comfey is incredibly important to this deck, acting as your primary draw engine and the means through which you can bolster your Lost Zone. Of course, having cards in your Lost Zone is an absolute must in order to accelerate energies, and use powerful attacks like Lost Impact and Lost Mine.
Colress’s Experiment
Giratina VSTAR is massively reliant on Colress’s Experiment, which is one of the reasons why this deck also runs several copies of Poke Gear – to give you an added chance of finding that Colress’s Experiment the first turn you can play it.
I often find that Colress’s Experiment is the main strength and weakness of this deck: if you can get it on the first turn you can play it and your board is useable, you have a strong chance of winning. If you can’t find it that critical first turn, your game will often be a difficult uphill battle.
Jet Energy
Jet Energy is massively important in taking the full benefit of ‘Flower Selecting’. Although you can use it to switch in a Comfey early game, use its Flower Selecting Ability, then retreat it, it also goes really well when adding that third energy to your Giratina VSTAR before sending it into battle.
Super Rod
Super Rod
Giratina VSTAR players might be accustomed to using Ordinary Rod in the past. However, Paldea Evolved brought Super Rod into play, a card even more versatile than Ordinary Rod or Energy Recycler, allowing you to choose three of either energy or Pokemon in any combination you need.
This is vital to Giratina VSTAR as energies are often discarded via Concelaed cards or when a Pokemon is knocked out. As many energies will be sent to the Lost Zone, you’ll need to keep the energies in your discard accessible for you to use as targets for Mirage Gate.
Why is Counter Catcher So Strong in this Deck?
Counter Catcher
Giratina VSTAR always had one glaring weakness despite all of its considerable power and versatility – it couldn’t reliably use Boss’s Orders to bring out Pokemon from the bench. That was simply because of its sometimes frustrating reliance on Colress’s Experiment to start getting cards into the Lost Zone.
With Counter Catcher, however, you can eliminate this obstacle and still use supporters like Colress’s Experiment or even the deadly Roxanne and benefit from selecting a more advantageous active Pokemon to knockout with Giratina VSTAR’s powerful attack.
Iono Levels the Playing Field
Iono
Without a doubt, one of the most significant cards to come out of Paldea Evolved is Iono. Iono fills the void felt by Marnie leaving the format. However, Iono can be used even more strategically than Marnie, acting as a midpoint between Roxanne and Marnie in regards to its ability to offset your opponents hand and making winning more feasible.
Mirage Gate
Mirage Gate
Last but definitely not lest, Mirage Gate is vital to this decks strategy. You will use Mirage Gate many times over the course of a battle to get the energies you need onto your Pokemon. Like Colress’s Experiment, Mirage Gate is something of a gift and a curse. While it is a massively powerful card, that also means Giratina is equally reliant on it. If you run out of Mirage Gates, your odds of victory are slim.
New threat facing Giratina VSTAR
Mist Energy
There is one major threat facing Giratina VSTAR that wasn’t there before, and that is the new Mist Energy released in Temporal Forces. Mist Energy is a powerful counter to Giratina VSTAR, and it can be included in a variety of decks to grant protection from Giratina VSTAR’s Star Requiem attack.
Not only does it block Star Requiem, it also counters Sableye’s Lost Mine. While not a death knell for this deck, if that card gets played too popularly, it could certainly make it tougher to win certain matchups.
Giratina VSTAR Deck matchup guide
After enjoying a long duration at the very top of decks in regards to popularity and vicotries, Giratina VSTAR has definitely dropped lately. However, it is still undeniably strong, and I could certainly see this deck archetype making a comeback to rejoin the very top ranks of competitive decks again soon.
In the meantime, here are a few matchups to watch for and how Giratina VSTAR handles them.
Gardevoir ex – Advantage
Gardevoir ex may be an overwhelmingly strong deck right now, but it’s not invincible and Giratina VSTAR certainly does well against it. Gardevoir is reliant on putting a ton of damage onto Pokemon in order to get attacks off, making them easy pickings for Sableye. Meanwhile, Gardevoir ex is easy enough to take out thanks to Giratina VSTAR’s Star Requiem.
Another big advantage in favor of Giratina in this matchup is the fact that Giratina can get an attack off pretty reliably turn one, giving you an early start in the prize race without opening yourself up too much for a two-prize counter next turn.
Charizard ex – Slight Disadvantage
Charizard ex has the slight edge in this matchup, but its pretty razor thin. It gets stronger throughout the game while in many ways Giratina gets weaker (loses its OHKO power after using the VSTAR, and loses energies due to Lost Impact). That being said, Giratina VSTAR is one of the few Pokemon in the meta capable of OHKOing Charizard – something very much in its favor.
Additionally, Charizard needs to field low HP Pokemon to get set up – something that can be easily taken advantage of by Giratina VSTAR and its range of powerful secondary attackers.
Lugia VSTAR – Advantage
Going up against Lugia VSTAR has always been something of a toss-up, but currently Giratina VSTAR has the edge. The main advantage Lugia has here is that it can deny you a prize via Legacy Energy. Other than that, Giratina VSTAR hits harder and doesn’t have a problem dealing with Lugia VSTAR’s pesky one prize attackers.
Lost Zone Box – Disadvantage
Although the way Lost Zone is played currently makes it a little easier to keep pace with in regards to prizes, I have always struggled with the matchup and certainly would give the advantage to Lost Zone Box. While not a huge disadvantage, Lost Zone Box moves faster and is less reliant on Colress given other turbo options.
Your best bet is to try and OHKO their two prize Pokemon but honestly your opponent could just choose not to field them against you as you have plenty of targets in the shape of Comfey for them to pick off. In this matchup, it is very important that you limit how many Comfey you field as those weak Pokemon could easily come back to haunt you once Sableye and Greninja start firing on all cylinders.
